Once known as Ways Station, a winter home for industrialist Henry Ford, Richmond Hill was incorporated in 1962. A few miles north of Richmond Hill, US 17 crosses the Ogeechee River near the site of the Battle of Kings Ferry, an audacious 18th-century defeat of the British by a Colonial colonel, two other officers and three enlisted men. Using widely spaced watch fires and misleading shouts to imaginary sentinels, the Americans convinced the British commander that they vastly outnumbered the five ships and 130 men intended to capture Savannah.

Riding alone into the British camp the next morning, the American leader informed the British commander that the bloodthirsty Colonial soldiers would accept nothing but unconditional surrender. The erstwhile invader handed over his entire force, which was marched away by the lone American while the other five followed behind to restrain their nonexistent restless troops.